There have been conventionally ink jet recording apparatuses which record images by ejecting ink from nozzles and causing the ink to land at desired positions on recording media. Various inks are used for such ink jet recording apparatuses in order to accurately record images on various recording media. Some ink jet recording apparatuses apply processing liquid to recording media or perform processing for surely fixing the ink which landed on the recording media.
As one of the inks used in such ink jet recording apparatuses, there is a UV curable ink which is hardened by emission of ultraviolet rays (UV light). The ink jet recording apparatuses using such an ink can rapidly and firmly fix the ink onto the recording media by emitting UV light to the recording media after ejecting and landing the ink onto the recording media.
It is desirable that the recording media and the ink are maintained within an appropriate temperature range when the ink lands on the recording media, in order to appropriately control the spread and permeation degrees and the like of the ink onto the recording media. However, the conventional ink jet recording apparatuses have had a problem that, when processing operations such as ink ejection, drying and fixing are performed on a same conveyance surface, influences of movements of drying and fixing configurations, ink reaction heat and the like transmit via the conveyance surface to the recording medium before image recording, leading to an inappropriate temperature of the recording medium. Patent Document 1 discloses an ink jet recording apparatus which has a sucking adhesion mechanism provided on the outer circumferential surface of a conveyance drum that rotates with a recording medium placed on the outer circumferential surface, performs image recording while maintaining the recording medium at an appropriate position by sucking air, and performs drying and fixing operations on a surface different from the conveyance drum by performing drying and emitting UV light while grasping, with a chain gripper, an end of the recording medium on which image recording was performed and moving the recording medium on the horizontal conveyance surface where the sucking adhesion operation is being performed.